Fugitive priest arrested in Dominican Republic

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) A fugitive priest who was convicted of sexually abusing a child in the Dominican Republic has been detained during an unrelated probe.

In 2010, the Rev. Domingo Espinal was sentenced to 15 years for raping a 12-year-old boy in 2003. He was allowed to remain free while he appealed, and when the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal last month he went on the run.

The Dominican Republic's attorney general's office says Espinal was captured late Monday when he went to pick up a teenager who got in trouble for uploading a defamatory video to the Internet. Police officers recognized Espinal as the fugitive priest and arrested him.

The boy told authorities that Espinal was his father. Officials say it's not clear if the boy's assertion is accurate.

AP

This story has been automatically published from the Associated Press wire which uses US spellings